Petanque

The other day, Trevor told m something: The French class that Trevor is in is now playing in a game called petanque. In fact, the school which Trevor attends is one of only three schools in Oregon which play this game.

When I learned about this, I had to smile. I mentioned that I knew about petanque – because there’s a scene of children playing it in one of my novels! Well, it’s the very ancient version of the game and it was played by Gaulish children. But, yeah, sam game! The one Trevor plays is the modern version.

After learning about this, I became excited. I wanted to see Trevor playing this game! Honestly, I thought Trevor was done with sports forever. But then THIS happened! So I guess NOT!

Anyway, today was a day for another game. And THIS particular game was to be played at another school!

The problem was, I didn’t know how to get to that school. I spent hours going over routes to the school on Google Maps. My husband coached me on how to get there. And Trevor also was my navigator – pointing out which way to go as I drove.

Even after all that, though, I still got lost! (I missed the exit on the freeway.) It took a while, but we got back on track and Trevor once again took over in the role of “navigator” to show me which way to go.

Unfortunately, I ended up getting Trevor to the game late and Trevor was unable to play on the regular team. I felt really miserable about that. I sat there moping and thinking I should get the Worst Mother of the Year award. Even though Trevor kept insisting it was okay. I still felt bad! However, after another team finished playing, they invited both Trevor AND Jesse to play. Cool! I was excited about this but even more excited that Jesse got to participate too.

That’s right, folks. Today my son learned how to play petanque. He had fun playing it too!

Trevor and some of the others (including Trevor’s French teacher) gave Jesse tips on how to play and showed him how to stand inside the ring and how to toss the ball. It took a while before he caught on.

Then it started to rain. First it was a light drizzle, stopped, rained, stopped, then there was a huge freaking downpour! And I was sitting there watching as everybody kept continuing to play petanque. I had my coat but no hood or umbrella so Trevor was kind enough to remove the jacket and drape it over me, covering my head. I protested at first – I didn’t want to be fussed over – but Trevor insisted on it so I accepted and said thank you.

They finished out the game and then we all went to where there was a tented area with a table of food. As everybody ate the snacks, I hung around under the tent just to get out of the rain!

Despite getting soaked in the rain – and despite getting lost – it was a fun time and we were all smiles as we left. We all had a great time! I took as many pictures as I was able to in between the episodes of rain. I am happy I got to see Trevor play petanque, happy that Jesse learned it AND that he got to play too, and happy that I was able to get some pictures! Yay for petanque! I can’t wait to go to the next game!